CSIRO is developing tools that improve the efficiency, productivity and objectivity of logging by using reflectance spectroscopy to log the mineralogy of drill cores and chips.
Determining mineralogy and mineral chemistry is of fundamental importance to exploration and mining.
Spectroscopic logging of cores and chips delivers cost-effective information related to the physical and chemical characteristics of sub-surface geological environments that can:
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characterise mineralogy of alteration, regolith or host rocks
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highlight controls of, or vectors to, mineralisation
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determine geotechnical and metallurgical properties of ore systems through mineralogical associations.
HyLogging™ systems
CSIRO’s range of HyLogging™ tools are based on reflectance spectroscopy, which is used to determine diagnostic spectral features caused by molecular vibrations indicative of the chemical bonds in crystalline minerals.
Reflectance spectroscopy can identify various minerals common to many geological units and hydrothermal alteration assemblages, such as:
Reflectance spectroscopy is used to assist geologists to extract new geological knowledge concerning alteration and mineralogical vectors to ore environment.
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phyllosilicates
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amphiboles
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carbonates
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sulphates
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iron oxides.
Semi-quantitative mineralogy and associated mineralogical parameters such as intensity of alteration, ‘crystallinity’ and chemistry can also be extracted from the HyLogging™ data.
The system tools being developed by the HyLogging™ Systems Group include:
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HyLogger™
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HyChips™
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TIR-Logger™
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TSG™ Suite.
HyLogger™
The CSIRO HyLogger™ rapidly measures reflectance spectra for contiguous ten mm pixels along the core and also captures continuous high resolution (0.1 mm) digital colour imagery of drill cores in their original trays.
A six section core tray takes about four minutes to log, and an average of about 700 metres of core can be logged per day. No sample preparation is required other than ensuring the core is clean and dry.
The current HyLogger™ consists of four principal components:
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a spectrometer covering the electromagnetic spectrum from visible-near-infrared (VNIR) to shortwave-infrared (SWIR) wavelengths (400 – 2 500 nm) for determining mineralogy
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a robotic x/y table for core/ chip tray translation
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a high resolution digital linescan camera
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a laser profilometer that measures core height and is used to detect core breaks and fractures at 0.2 mm resolution.
HyChips™
HyChips™ instruments are smaller systems designed to very rapidly collect spectral reflectance measurements from drill chips and blast-hole samples in their original trays.
Three chip trays (60 samples) can be measured in about four minutes. As many as 3 000 samples per day were measured in a recent project.
HyChips™ is particularly useful for reconnaissance exploration, regional bottom of hole sampling programs, as well as mine-scale operations including grade control and bench sampling.
TIR-Logger™
The TIR (Thermal Infra Red) HyLogger (TIR-Logger) is a unique new instrument capable of collecting reflectance measurements across the 5 000 – 14 000 nm spectral range.
In this range diagnostic features of the following minerals are apparent:
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quartz/silica
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feldspars
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garnets
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olivines
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pyroxenes
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carbonates.
TSG™ suite - spectral analysis software
CSIRO has previously developed and commercialised The Spectral Geologist (TSG™) software.
The TSG™ suite comprises a family of four programs of increasing sophistication for progressively larger and more information-rich datasets.
The members of the suite are:
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the original industry-standard TSG™-Pro
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the entry-level TSG™-Lite
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the flagship TSG™-Core
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the low-cost TSG™-Viewer for the visualisation only of results created by other members of the suite.
The TSG™ Suite imports, processes, analyses, plots and visualises hyperspectral data collected from a variety of proximal remote sensing spectrometers including:
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PIMA (Integrated Spectronics)
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FieldSpec (Analytical Spectral Devices)
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The HyLogger™, TIR-Logger™ and HyChips™.
TSG™-Core allows simultaneous interactive analysis and product generation from all the data collected by the various HyLogging™ systems, including:
It also provides functions for down-sampling and export of the mineralogical results in formats suitable for importing into a GIS or mine planning package.
HyLogging™ systems users
HyLogging™ systems users comprise:
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large and small mining companies
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mineral exploration groups
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State and Territory geological surveys
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analytical laboratories
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mining industry consultants and service providers (such as Auspec).
Applications
Commodities where the systems are finding application include:
HyLogging™ systems group
The group is a multi-disciplinary team based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, at CSIRO’s North Ryde laboratory. Members of the group include:
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Dr Jon Huntington - Geologist & Team Leader
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Dr Lew Whitbourn - Physicist & Deputy
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Mr Peter Mason - TSG Software Engineer
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Mr Peter Warren - NVCL Database & Web Engineer
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Ms Melissa Quigley - Geologist
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Dr Kai Yang - Geologist
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Dr Martin Schodlok - Geologist TIR-Logging Post Doc
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Mr David Coward - Electronic Engineer
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Mr Phil Connor - Electronic Engineer
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Mr Marc Jolivet - Mechanical Engineer
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Dr Andy Green - Honorary Research Fellow
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Dr Mark Berman - CSIRO Statistician.
Auscope National Virtual Core Library
The HyLogging Systems group is also providing its technologies to the Auscope National Virtual Core Library project in the form of HyLogging instruments for each Australian State and Territory Geological Survey, and demonstration database and web-delivery tools
Read more about the Auscope National Virtual Core Library project and the HyLogging-Web and National Virtual Core Library (NVCL) Demonstrator.
Find out more about our work in Minerals Exploration and Spectral sensing technologies.
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